Is a Spot Finally Open for Big Bobby Bradley?

Bobby Bradley has been on Indians prospect rankings since he won the Arizona League MVP and triple crown in his rookie year of 2014 (he was ranked #75 by Burning River Baseball that year and #5 after 2018), but didn’t start getting real Major League consideration until after 2017 when he showed a great improvement between Lynchburg and Akron, then went on to play in the Arizona Fall League.

With Carlos Santana becoming a free agent at the same time and only Edwin Encarnacion on roster as a 1B/DH, it looked like the time was near for Bradley in the big leagues. Then, the Indians signed Yonder Alonso to a two year deal with an option for a third, putting those plans on hold. In an effort to shed salary, however, both Encarnacion and Alonso were dealt during the past off-season, bringing back Santana and bringing in another 1B in Jake Bauers, but possibly leaving some hope for Bradley.

Beyond all those aspects out of his control, Bradley continued to mash in Akron and Columbus in 2018. For the fourth straight year he pushed past 20 home runs, a feat accomplished by Jesus Aguilar only twice (2011 and 2016). The chart below highlights his home runs per plate appearance over his five minor league seasons.

Pointing out Bradley’s greatest ability isn’t meant to detract from his overall value as a player, but when it comes down to it, he is essentially just a home run hitter. Like Aguilar before him, he is a fairly good defensive first baseman, but has never played any other position so will be stuck either there or at DH in the big leagues.

While he has greatly reduced his strike out rate from that awful 2016 in Lynchburg, he is still an extremely high swing and miss hitter, a problem compounded by his low walk rate. Bradley is far from the next coming of Jim Thome or Adam Dunn, but could be the next Dmitri Young and should certainly outpace Aguilar, who was good for 35 home runs and an All-Star selection in 2018.

Getting back to the Indians overall situation at first base, the primary reason that things could be looking up for Bradley is the versatility of the newcomer Bauers. While Santana will be stuck at 1B/DH after being tried and found wanting at 3B and RF, Bauers has played considerably in the outfield throughout his minor league career and with Tampa Bay in the majors. With the Indians in dire need of offense from the corner outfield positions, Bauers seems a perfect fit. This could open up either first or DH in 2019 and beyond.

The fact that this versatility is already inherent in the MLB roster, however, means that there could be quite a few contenders for the role in 2018. These include members of the Indians farm system who spent more time in AAA than Bradley in 2018 like Yu Chang and Connor Marabell, both of whom also played in the Arizona Fall League in 2018. There are also a handful of spring training invitees who are certainly interested in the position including Brandon Barnes and Trayce Thompson who have the added advantage of being outfielders.

The Indians decision among these men will show a bit of their strategy heading into 2019 as Bradley is unquestionably the most powerful among them, but the least versatile. Given that offense was such a problem, running with the big man out of the gate as the starting first baseman could go a long way in replacing Encarnacion and Alonso in the line-up. If they are more worried about outfield defense (another huge issue in 2018), they could simply leave Bauers as the first baseman, Santana as DH and ignore the weak hitting outfield.

Whether he starts in Columbus or Cleveland, Bradley’s consistent improvements from level to level give great confidence that he will ultimately be able to make the leap.

Bradley is already on the 40 man roster and will burn through another minor league option (leaving him with two) should he spend any time in AAA in 2019. This does leave some time on his clock, but the Indians should be very wary about letting him string on too long. There is no question at all now that they mishandled the Aguilar situation to an incredible degree by allowing his options to expire before giving him a legitimate chance in the big leagues and they simply cannot allow that to happen a second time just a few years later.